Positioning via cell polygons and time advance, were introduced to Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G networks as features for accurately determining the position and distance of UE for control signaling purposes and emergency Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls. These features allow an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) NodeB (abbreviated as EnodeB) in an LTE network to automatically be aware of its User Equipment (UE)s positions in its coverage area, and be able to accurately identify and forward positioning information to its neighboring EnodeB when handovers, tracking area updates and cell reselections occur. Positioning and time advance allow an EnodeB to obtain accurate location of its UEs and to forward such information to its neighboring EnodeB cells when mobility takes place. Moreover, these features enable the EnodeB to associate and identify the power and time synchronization of the Radio Frequency (RF) signals that are needed to propagate to its particular UEs for reduced interference and block error rate.
In a conventional handover scheme, a UE is attached to an EnodeB that provides the best RF signal quality with respect to the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). A source EnodeB will allow its attached UE to handover to its neighboring target EnodeB when the SINR of the neighboring EnodeB becomes higher than that of the source EnodeB. Source and target Enodebs will be aware of the UE geographical location, as it transits from the source EnodeB cell polygon to the target EnodeB cell polygon. Timing Advance will also provide the distance of the UE from its source Enodeb and target Enodeb respectively before and after handover. In addition, when performing handover or cell reselection, a UE if idle, e.g. sleeping mode, will become connected for the amount time needed to transfer control and data bearers from the source to the target EnodeB. With this vital information, and through the following embodiments, monitoring of UE speed in Wireless Networks becomes possible, essential and will provide great accuracy in a real-time fashion.